This invention is directed to a toy which utilizes a fly wheel to move the toy by transfer of rotational motion of the fly wheel to appendages attached to the body. The appendages move with respect to the body under motion imparted to them by the fly wheel.
A number of moving toys are known which utilize fly wheels as an energy source for propelling the toy. Generally however, most of these toys are wheeled vehicles. In the wheeled vehicle type toys, the fly wheel can serve directly as one of the wheels of the vehicle and as such it is a driving wheel, or it can be nested inside the body of the toy and connected to a drive wheel via gears or the like.
The above noted fly wheel propelled vehicle toys are very advantageous because the child playing with the toy can repeatedly energize the fly wheel utilizing muscle power and does not have to rely on batteries or the like which lose their charge and must continually be replaced.
At least one other type of moving toy is known which utilizes a fly wheel for its energy source. A walking toy is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,437. This toy includes a linkage which is oriented transverse with respect to the fore/aft direction of movement of the toy. The fly wheel, or gyroscopic element, as noted in this toy, is oriented so as to rotate in the fore/aft axis. The linkage is attached to the fly wheel such that it first lifts one of its ends and then the other of its ends. This, in itself, does not propel the toy forward. However, when this is combined with the gyroscopic procession of the rotating fly wheel, the toy pivots first around one end of the linkage and then around the other to move forward in a waddling like manner. Because of the very nature of this movement, this toy is not capable of rapid movement across a support surface as are the above referred to wheel vehicle type toys.